During Rafa's last season in charge, we had won 6-1 against Hull at home. We played a CL game (Fiorentina away) after that and lost the game without putting up a fight. We lost the PL game that followed this. After the PL game, we had to play Arsenal (away) in the Carling cup. We lost 2-1 (I guess).
IMO, our downfall started against the Violas. Our inability to respond against lesser opposition in less meaningful cups inevitably led to the gloomy days of the past couple of seasons.
The above rant was to drive home the point that the win against Arsenal may not be meaningful if we a) don't win convincingly against Exeter b) don't win against Bolton at home next week.
I just hope Kenny puts a good team that can demolish the opposition on Wednesday.
Thats a good point, it's true we must follow up on good results with a win against lesser teams in the following match, but the Carling Cup, and to a lesser extent, the FA Cup are competitions that give us an opportunity to field some second string players and give them game time.
That being said, I would play the following:
Doni
Flannagan Skrtel Krygiakos Robinson
Shelvey Spearing
Maxi Henderson Sterling
N'Gog
Bench: Jones, Insua, Suso, Pacheco, Coady, Wilson, Kuyt.
Depending on the situations with Aquilani and Joe Cole, I haven't played them. Especially Cole, since if he goes to Spurs(?), he'll be cup tied and lessens his value. Henderson needs a relaxed game like this to get some confidence, I feel he's been too conservative in the two games he's played. They were his debut, and a trip to the Emirates, so probably understandably so. Maxi should be getting a first team appearance off the bench at least, so I'd give him a start here, and Sterling is a quality player, so deserves a chance.
Logged
